Synthetic polymers and engineering plastics have long been prominent in the manufacturing industry for their excellent processability and bulk physical properties. Most polymers exhibit desirable physical properties such as thermal and long-term stability, resistance to radiation, wear, abrasion, chemical solvents, and low toxicity. Most polymers also possess good mechanical strength while others demonstrate useful electrical properties. Synthetic materials are in abundance today and are used in all sorts of articles of manufacture from infant bottles and liners to automobile bodies and mechanical parts.
Depending on the end use, however, most engineering polymers exhibit undesirable properties at the polymer surface or interface. Specifically, the surfaces of articles manufactured from the great majority of synthetic engineering plastics are hydrophobic, non-wettable, of low biocompatibility, and they exhibit unacceptable nonspecific protein binding characteristics. Consequently, research workers in the polymer art have sought ways of modifying the surface properties and characteristics of synthetic materials to better suit their anticipated application. This effort has been particularly keen in the biocompatible polymer and membrane art where the surface properties of the membrane are extremely important in determining the usefulness and efficiency of a particular filtration, dialysis, separation, or purification process.